Dr. King Response

After reading through Dr. King’s speech regarding the War in Vietnam I learned a lot about King’s dedication to the civil rights movement both within our borders and beyond them. More importantly, from the arguments set forth by King it becomes clear to me that the U.S. hypocritically identifies itself as the ultimate problem solver of the world by failing to properly address the very issues that were eating away at our nation during this era. Moreover, the war in Vietnam not only adversely affected people on the American home front, but the lives of many Vietnam civilians, whose land and homes were destroyed.

In the post WWII era, the U.S. was much more concerned with the containment of Communism than with solving problems of widespread racism and poverty that was characteristic of our nation during this time. As King mentioned, too much money was being afforded towards the war effort rather than directing it towards those impoverished citizens who needed the help from the government. Additionally, there was a great irony associated with the fact that an unreasonably high proportion of African Americans were drafted into the military to fight and die for our country. Why should they be forced to fight for a country that for so long had excluded them from greater society? The answer is clear, they shouldn’t have had to. However, this supports my notion that the U.S., in all its power and conceit, feels that it is their inherent duty as a nation to police the rest of the world while its home front remains plagued with issues of its own.

On a different note, America’s quest to eliminate the threat of Communism was also a huge blow to the very people they attempting to protect and liberate. As King states, “we have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village.” The war destroyed not only South Vietnamese land and crops, but have corrupted and killed innocent civilians, including women and children. A prime example of this was the My Lai massacre, in which American troops recklessly burned civilian villages, killing women and children who were thought to be associated with the Vietcong.